The America East tournament is set to begin with a play-in showdown between University of Maryland, Baltimore County and Binghamton University, with a chance to take on No. 1 Vermont hanging in the balance.

The No. 8 Retrievers (5-24, 4-12 America East) and the No. 9 Bearcats (7-22, 4-12 America East) may sit at the bottom two positions in the conference, but just two years ago, the story between these two teams was very different.

Head coaches Kevin Broadus and Randy Monroe had built Binghamton and UMBC up from the basement and into the 2009 America East Championship game. Held at the Events Center in front of its largest home crowd ever and a national television audience on ESPN2, the Bearcats won their first conference title with a 61-51 victory. The Bearcat faithful poured onto the Events Center floor in jubilation as the win earned Binghamton a matchup with the Duke Blue Devils in the NCAA tournament.

Oh, how the mighty have fallen. The two squads have a paltry .261 winning percentage between them this year.

So far this season, the Bearcats and Retrievers have met twice. The first game, held on Jan. 12, saw the Bearcats edge UMBC by an 83-75 score. Sophomore guard Jimmy Gray led the way for the Bearcats, who were without star forward Greer Wright because of an ankle injury. Gray dropped a career-high 23 points and added six assists and three steals. Senior forward Mahamoud Jabbi tallied his first of several double-doubles of the season with 17 points and 14 boards. Jabbi was a force on defense too, adding three blocks and two steals.

The Retrievers, however, got a monster game from junior guard Chris De La Rosa, the third-leading scorer in the America East. The Bearcats had no answer for De La Rosa in that game as he poured in 31 points on 12-of-20 shooting while adding five boards and five assists.

UMBC would get its revenge on Feb. 3, beating Binghamton 83-79 in overtime to hand the team its seventh consecutive loss. Senior forward Moussa Camara torched the Retrievers from behind the arc, drilling six 3-pointers in nine attempts to finish with 20 points. But UMBC used a more balanced attack with five players in double figures to bury the Bearcats in the extra session.

The winner of the play-in game will take on top-seeded Vermont (22-7, 13-3 AE). The Catamounts possess the No. 1 seed for the fourth time in the past decade and have won four conference championships in that span, though only one came when UVM was the top seed.

Neither the Bearcats nor the Retrievers have had much success against Vermont this season, as the two teams are a combined 0-4 against the Catamounts. The Bearcats dropped their first matchup by 18 points, but battled Vermont in the second matchup three weeks later, losing 60-51. BU kept it close until an 11-2 Vermont run closed out the game.

UMBC, on the other hand, was blown out by the Catamounts 85-48 in the teams’ first matchup. De La Rosa still led all scorers with 20 points. The Retrievers lost again three weeks later by an 80-67 score.

The play-in game between UMBC and Binghamton is set to tip off at 8:15 p.m. Thursday night. The winner is scheduled to play Vermont at 2:15 p.m. Saturday in the quarterfinals.